So damn hard deciding which tube preamp to buy!

It would definitely be helpful to understand what amp you have.

buy this ancient beauty

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224555999898?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=533...

ship to you, use it

or

have seller ship it directly to Audio Classics, let them check everything, and change all the RCA jacks to new gold plated ones. 

fabulous sounding FM tuner, and MM Phono 1 and 2.

Plug it into an Integrated with remote volume!

That's very nice Elliott, but he's apparently looking to breathe rarer air.

Preamp would be used with ht and with a mac 255 multichannel amp. Only using 3 of 5 channels.  

Ok, so you're going to apply the remaining 2 channels solely to audio.  Any reason you wouldn't have the McIntosh tube preamps at the top of your short list?